Does A Fashion Brand Need A Public-Facing Founder To Survive?

In the fashion world, there are a smorgasbord of founders and designers we read and hear about. There’s the celebrity designer, which could either mean a celebrity-turned-designer or a designer-turned-celebrity; the socialite designer; the influencer designer (again, that could be an influencer-turned-designer or vice versa); the millennial ‘Girlboss’ founder; the mythical, legendary designer whose name is everywhere but whose personal life and personality we know little about. With decreasing frequency, it seems, there’s also the talented, classically trained, dues-paid, behind-the-scenes designer who wants their work to speak for itself. Fashion brands have been harnessing the power of celebrity for over a century. But the “celebrity brand” as we know it really gained traction around the late ’90s and early 2000s, thanks to stars like Jay-Z, Sean Combs, Jessica Simpson and more pushing lesser-known names off the sales floor at major retailers like Macy’s and upending the entire industry in the process. And there are ways that we still feel this today. Read more at Fashionista.